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Dessert

Puffs — Con Tinned

A puff pastry made from water, butter, eggs, and egg whites, filled with jam or cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Puffs — Con Tinned

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the paste

  1. In a saucepan, bring water and butter to a boil, stirring until a smooth paste forms.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Bake and fill

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture, the size of a chicken egg, onto slightly greased baking pans.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 20 minutes.

  3. Once cool, cut the puffs open at the side and fill with jam or cream.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps give the paste a tender texture.
Eggs
Provide structure and, as they set in the oven, help the puffs rise and hold their shape.
Water
Turns to steam in the oven, helping the puffs expand and go hollow.

The step that matters

Stirring in the eggs. Eggs must be added one at a time and fully mixed in, so the paste becomes smooth and glossy. If added too quickly, the paste can split or turn lumpy, and the puffs may not rise well.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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